Utah Comes To The Marriott Center

The BYU women's gymnastics tema will host the University of Utah this Friday in the Marriott Center.

Utah, the No. 3 team in the nation, comes to the Marriott Center with a season average of 196.025 after five meets. Only UCLA and Alabama have better scores than the Utes.

The Cougars enter the meet with a 194.067 average after three meets, which ranks at No. 18 in the nation.

All-Arounder Kelly Parkinson has had a strong start this year, with an average score of 39.267, the seventh best in the country.

"Kelly has been tremendous this year. She has the conisitency that comes with time," said head coach Brad Cattermole. "Also, some of the newcomers have stepped up and hit their routines for us so far this year. That, combined with veterans like Kelly, has been a big plus."

Despite suffering from a calf injury, Kim Little stands at No. 39 nationally on the uneven bars.

Along with Parkinson, Jeni Lopez also competes in the All-Around for the Cougars.

Other strong competitors fro BYU have been Brooke Vraig on bars, beam and floor, and Kari Dye on vault, beam and floor.

Transfer Trisha Driggs has been a solid competitor on the beam as well as vault, and Angie Hickman and Brogan Jacobsen have both been solid contributors in two different events.

Utah's Deidra Graham ranks at No. 18 in the All-Around with a 39.119 average and Theresa Wolf is No. 24 nationally with a 39.050. Theresa Kulikowski sits at No. 4 in the nation on the uneven bars with a 9.912 average. As a team, the Utes are No. 1 in the country on the balance beam with an average of 49.019.

Last year the Cougars and the Utes met twice. On February 4, BYU traveled to Salt Lake where they gave Utah its regular season home meet in 20 years. BYU forced the Utes to come from behind in thefinal rotation to win the meet, 196.300 to 195.800.

In Provo, the Cougars placed second in a three-team meet which included Southern Utah. BYU scored a 195.650 to Utah's 197.200 and Southern Utah's 193.300. Little scored a 39.400 for a career high in the All-Around competition.

BYU and Utah will meet again later in the season. BYU travels to the Huntsman Center on the campus of the University Utah for a meet on March 23. The meet will be televised on KJZZ channel 14. Today's meet is being televised on KBYU and BYU-TV, available on the Dish Network 500 System.